Ride-sharing systems have been an economical mode of travel since the recent past and thus, have gained a lot of popularity. A few popular ride-sharing service providers include, for example, Uber, Lyft, Ola, BlaBlaCar, etc., and these have launched products and services in the given space. One of the key challenges of the ride-sharing systems is to make a ride-sharing experience as pleasant or happy for all users. Based on a recent study, it is determined that interpersonal compatibilities and reservations about co-riders often act as the main deterrents for the users of ride-sharing systems. For instance, a person who doesn't like making conversation may not prefer to be placed in the same group including people who are extroverts and talk a lot. In a similar manner, a person who likes to offer ride shares in her car may not like if a passenger comments on his or her riding. Therefore, it is extremely important to address the compatibility issues among users sharing rides in order to ensure a pleasant ride-sharing experience.
A number of solutions exist in the market but most of the solutions mainly focus on suggesting co-riders based on basic parameters such as source, destination, and departure/arrival time. While some ride-sharing systems permit a rider to choose co-riders based on affiliations of the rider or one of the prior ride experiences. One of the disadvantage of such systems is that an active participation of the rider is required in formation of the groups, which sometimes increases burden on the rider. Further, the affiliations of the rider may not reside at similar locations, nor commute to proximate destinations. Such affiliations of the rider are usually a smaller subset in comparison to a total number of route compatible users available on a typical ride-sharing system. In other words, none of the solutions focus on forming groups considering the pleasantness of the ride-sharing experience. Therefore, there is a need for methods and systems for forming ride-sharing groups in order to have a pleasant ride-sharing experience.